


Soldier of Love: Galaxy Shepard Tales

by abluecanarylite



Series: Soldier of Love [2]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Mass Effect 2
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-08-20
Updated: 2012-08-19
Packaged: 2017-11-12 12:27:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 4,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/491021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abluecanarylite/pseuds/abluecanarylite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of drabbles and ficlets based around Galaxy Shepard, Infiltrator, Survivor - and total Paragon. The universe can be pretty scary, but all she wants to do is make it a better place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. We Seem To Be Made to Suffer

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note: I thought I'd begin putting together all the random drabbles I write for Galaxy. Much better then having them sit around gathering metaphorical dust.

**Prompt: We Seem To Be Made to Suffer**  
It was midnight when Galaxy appeared behind Zaeed on the Observation Deck and grabbed his half smoked cigar. She eased in beside him on the couch and made sure he couldn't take it back without climbing over her.

"Hasn't EDI told you to stop smoking on board, Zaeed?" She asked, testing the already chewed end.

"Didn't think you were into such a nasty habit, pet." He watched as she inhaled just enough that she could taste it and expel the smoke into the shape of ring.

"Not really, only when I need a piece of home. My father would sit by the fire after a long day in the fields and enjoy a cigar and a small glass of whiskey while my mother read to him." She handed it back. "You remind me of him a little. Gruff, toned from hard work, quiet until he had something you needed to hear. Not as jaded though."

"Jaded, ha." He chewed on the end of the cigar and looked off, trying to imagine the sort of man he'd be if he had had a daughter like her. Maybe he had. "Look whose talking. We were made to suffer."

Galaxy nodded, "Yeah, but it didn't break my heart, Zaeed." Standing, she squeezed his shoulder. "You've already learned from the past, start looking to the future. Our suffering wasn't meant to bring us down, just make our grip tighter. Pull yourself up, and stop smoking that thing. You're pissing off Tali."

Zaeed grunted as Shepard left the room, but snuffed out the cigar on his boot. He wouldn't admit she had a point – not out loud of course.


	2. Miracles

**Prompts: "Miracles"**  
"Joker!" Shepard ran over and embraced him before she could stop herself. He gave her a tight squeeze before she caught herself and pulled away. She looked down and realized he was standing without help of crutches and was managing to stand straighter than he ever had. "Jeff... you're standing."

The door to the meeting room closed and Jeff gave the woman a small smile. "Come on, we can talk about miracles later. I've got something way better to show you."

"I don't know, I think you walking is pretty much the top of the 'way better' list right now."

"Thanks Commander."

"Don't... it's just Shepard now."


	3. You Owe Me Big

**Prompt: You Owe Me Big**  
"You owe me big." Joker said, filling up the silence that had surrounded them in the cockpit. There had been a lot of that after the jump through the Omega-4 Relay. "I mean medals, shore leave – you name it. I think saving your ass yet again earns me brownie points."

Galaxy's laugh echoed throughout the small place, and followed her as she stood and neared the pilot's chair. "Alright, you get a shiny gold star, a month of shore leave, and…" she leaned over and kissed his cheek, whispering, "a kiss from the damsel in distress."

Joker stared at her, eyes wide and studying her face like he had when she had come back to life.

"Permission to speak freely?" He managed to ask.

She smiled, giving him space to breath. "You always do…"

His mouth interrupted hers.


	4. One Look Behind

**Prompt: "One look behind"**  
After the stunned silence, after the celebrating, after everyone petered away, too tired to comprehend anything more than sleep, Shepard stood and took her place beside Joker. There wouldn't be any sleep for her. Not true, honest to God sleep. Not when she could feel the Reaper-call from deep beyond the space between stars. The Protheans still whispered their secrets in her ear when she paid attention and somewhere between passing and waking she swallowed the death rattle that haunted her.

The only quiet she ever had was up in the cockpit, and there she would sit and laugh at everyone who said it was impossible. Surviving Mindoir, Akuze, the Collectors – death. It was humbling and hilarious all in one breath.

Galaxy looked over at Joker and smiled, a small, bubbling laugh suddenly spilling out of her. He closed his eyes and tried not to, but soon their laughter echoed across the CIC. She was sure if anyone was awake to listen, they could hear it travel though the elevator shaft. No one would be fooled by it – because as soon as it left them, tears burned their eyes and it died.

Joker coughed and cleared his throat, rubbing his face quickly with the back of his hand. "Man… stupid… space dust."

Shepard was almost glad EDI didn't correct him. It let the quiet settle around them again as she looked over at his red eyes. He had been scared, she knew he had been, but he stood up and fought. Fought for the crew, for his friends – for her.

He always fought for her.

Standing, she reached over and quickly turned on auto-pilot before taking his hands from the control panel. He started to protest but found her lips on his to be suddenly very distracting. Shepard couldn't believe she was being so bold, but he deserved to know how it made her feel to see him standing there, defending her and the crew. How it made her feel when he pulled them out of the fire countless times. What he would have missed if she had left him to die…

She pulled away and realized their cheeks were wet again. They didn't have the energy to be embarrassed.

Shepard's voice was low "You keep saving me…"

Jeff looked down, as if wondering something before he took her hand and squeezed it. "I'm not losing you again."

As he looked up, she saw his eyes glint, sad and guilty. It made her hurt, thinking he blamed himself for getting her killed. It made her tug on his arm, silently begging him to get away from the stars, away from the very thing that reminded them of everything.

"If I go up there…" He started, but trailed off when she pressed her forehead against his. "I might sleep forever…"

She smiled, tears burning her again – but she fought hard against them. "Then we don't have to do it alone."

He nodded, shaking his head almost immediately afterward. "Funny how little things like surviving a suicide mission, brings people together."

Shepard pulled his hand again and Jeff swung the chair around to get up. When they were halfway to the elevator, he wrap his arm around her waist let her lean on him. If anything they should have been doing the opposite, but they weren't going to bed alone. Even as friends, they needed someone to hold onto.


	5. Never Tell Me the Odds

**Prompt: Never tell me the odds**  
Joker swallowed the shot and showed it to Shepard. "So after we kick their collective asses…"

Legion interrupted the "Moreau-Lieutenant, the odds of us surviving a Reaper attack of this multitude is…"

"ARGH!" The Normandy's pilot waved his hands, as if shooing the geth away. "Never tell me the odds!"


	6. iPartner Match Found!

**Prompt: iPartner match found!**  
Inter-Relay Text Chat

Location: [BLOCKED]

To: MindoirJig

From: FlyBoy72

21:04 MJ: Hi.

21:04 MJ: This is weird.

21:05 FB: Tell me about it, I've been on here for a month now and you're the first match they've found me.

21:10 FB: I probably shouldn't have said that.

21:10 MJ: No, it's okay. Sorry, I'm distracted. A friend of mine sent me this vid called "The Guardians of Mindoir".

21:10 FB: You watch cartoons?

21:10 MJ: Sometimes. Work keeps me pretty busy though.

21:12 FB: What do you do during your spare time, when you're not watching cartoons?

21:12 MJ: *lol* Travel, volunteer, garden. I'm pretty boring.

21:14 FB: Boring is good.

21:17 FB Again, probably shouldn't of said that.

21:20 FB: You there?

21:30 MJ: Jeff.

21:30 FB: Yes?

21:30 MJ: Joker.

21:31 FB: Shit.

21:32 FB: Who's this?

21:33 MJ: It's your captain, and if you disconnect I'm going to delete all of your porn.

21:35 FB: So you like the vid?

21:37 MJ: I'd like it better if you stopped chatting with me and get your ass up here for a proper date.

21:40 FB: How'd you find out it was me?

21:42 MJ: I've hacked colony security defenses more complicated, don't let the Mindoir farm girl demeanor fool you.

21:44 FB: Want a drink from the fridge?

21:45 MJ: Just get up here!1 You're going to miss Avani rescuing her ship from Flavian!

21:46 MJ: [DISCONNECT]

21:46 FB: [DISCONNECT]

Thank you for connecting to iPartner Connections!


	7. I Aim to Please

**Prompt: I Aim to Please**  
"Where's Shepard!" Jack was furious, she threw another crate at the incoming Cerberus commandos. "She said all she needed to do was take out their commander!"

Zaeed gave a loud, strained laughed. "Quit your bitchin'!"

Suddenly, the Cerberus facility began to go quiet as one by one the commandos began to fall. Some were taken down by shots to the head while others were met with quick hands and the sound of necks cracking.

Jack groaned, eying the surrounding buildings. "You stealthy bitch."


	8. Cookies?

**Prompt: Cookies?**  
Mmm… something smells good. Joker limped out of his new quarters and out into the crew rec area. He could see Shepard in the old med lab, now the new kitchen, sitting on the counter with a mixing bowl.

He padded through the blast doors and was glad he had in fact smelled chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven at an ungodly hour. Shepard waved at him while she sucked on the end of a dough covered mixing spoon.

"That's just mean, Commander." He lifted himself up on the counter next to her and tried to steal some of the dough in the bowl.

Galaxy moved it away. "I'm sorry, but my name is not Commander."

"Come ooooon, Shep." He leaned on her hard, make her laugh as they almost fell onto the stove. "Come ooooooooon."

She tossed him the bowl and he caught it easily, but not without her slapping his arm with her mixing spoon. "Now you have space cooties."

"What are you five?" He rolls his eyes, but he could hardly hide his amusement. "Even, I already had my cootie shot, so I'm immune."

Shepard smirked and nudged him.


	9. Summer

**Prompt: "Summer"**  
The Shin Akiba ward was far prettier than she had expected. Galaxy felt a little bad that she hadn't visited it earlier – but she guessed saving the universe had that affect on free time. She admired the long streets lined with shops, mostly of Asian decent, like someone crammed the continent into a ward. It was beautiful and Kasumi was happy to take her on the grand tour.

Galaxy bit into her popsicle of sea salt ice cream. The Citadel was going through summer and their perch above the market below was getting a good deal of the artificial sun. It reminded her of working the fields back on Mindoir as much as the market brought back memories of the ones back on her home world.

Kasumi finally spoke up after they had sat so long in silence, just admiring the ward. "So, do you think we should surprise Jeff at the hentai shop?"

She stood, Popsicle between her teeth and nodded. Old summer memories could wait, shore leave required they make new ones of their own.


	10. Grossest Planet Ever

**Prompt: Sticky**  
"One word, Mordin, one word, and I will personally flush you out of the airlock." Shepard's green eyes seemed to flare at the salarian through the containment field.

The good doctor opened his mouth and closed it several times before disappearing into the cockpit. Shepard rolled her eyes when a laugh was heard and then EDI's voice sounded over the intercom.

"Commander, Dr. Solus would like to exam the substance in his lab, please place a sample in the provided container." A plastic specimen cup popped from the wall and Galaxy groaned.

"Then will you clean me off?"

"Of course, Shepard."

Grabbing a handful of sticky slime off of her arm, she shook the substance into the cup and then stomped back to the disinfecting area of the airlock. "Alright, clean me. Any embarrassing pictures you take can be after I am soaking wet. At least I'll be clean."

"Jeffery would like that greatly."

"I'll make sure to hug him first."


	11. Christmas

**Prompt: Christmas**  
"Merry Christmas, Joker." Shepard nudged him and he opened his eyes to find a small cabin with a bed and a wall full of model ships.

His things were spread out across shelves beside his bed nook and his desk held a picture of the old crew and the Normandy SR1 with a holo comm of EDI physically watching them. Shepard looked beside herself.

"You like it? It's not much, but I figured the pilot of both Normandys should finally get his own room." She smiled wide. "The ships just fit perfectly in here anyway."

He touched the glass protecting the models behind it. Jeff remembered seeing them in Shepard's cabin. For someone like his commanding officer, a collection of ships was out of place. It had to have just been something to fill the void in such a big space. He knew she was better with small spaces, comforted by bunks and hearing the breath of people close by.

Before she could turn away, he leaned over and kissed the small space between cheek and lip, where her smiles stopped into a tiny dimple people rarely saw.

She flushed, a huff of a laugh escaping her.

"Merry Christmas, Shepard."


	12. Things I Should Have Said

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shepard doesn't take Ashley's rejection very well after Horizon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Timeline: Paragon, post-Horizon, ME2 (slightly out of sequence with the game)

**Prompt: "Things I Should Have Said"**  
Shepard cried; deep, chest shuddering sobs that people could hear as they passed through the crew quarters. It was loud enough to echo down from the loft and into the dinning area. No one dared intervene, especially not the Cerberus crew. Not with the way she periodically screamed she didn't work for them. They didn't blame her; they blamed him for hurting their captain. Shepard's crew loved her and their boss had lost an ounce of respect for putting her in such a situation.

So they whispered to each other and begged the specialists she had brought on board to talk to her. Tali and Garrus assured them she needed time to cope, Samara and Kasumi were unsure of what to say, Thane and Zaeed weren't good with words, and no one dared asked Jack or Grunt. That left only one other person they could ask…

"Mr. Monreu." Miranda stood behind the pilot and waited, knowing full well only one person was allowed such a position and she was no where near as qualified.

"Shepard's just letting off some steam, Lawson, back off." Joker closed a small screen that showed the Commander kicking her computer chair into the bathroom. Miranda chocked up such a feat to growing up on a farm. She might have been perfect, but the Commander could still hold her down if need be.

"If it were up to me, I would do just that, but as Shepard's mental state is very important to the crew, we as a whole have come to ask that you comfort her. I don't care how, but you are the only one on this ship who knows her better than Talizorah and Mr. Varkarian." She sighed and stepped to his side. "Dr. Chakwas and Dr. Chambers have brought it to my attention that Matriarch Argall will use her biotics to skin me and all Cerberus crew members if we allow Shepard to suffer. As I am aware of the Matriarch's position in the Asari community, I am metaphorically begging you to go speak with her."

Joker snorted. "Serves you right for not warning her about Ashley." He looked up and smirked. "I wouldn't mind seeing Milena teaching you a lesson. So that's a no."

He turned back to his controls before his fingers froze, a small warning screen popped up and then disappeared, causing him to swivel the chair around.

Miranda stepped back. "What is it?"

"None of your business." Jeff limped towards the elevator, jogging the best he could.

The captain's quarters were a wreck. Galaxy had rearranged her furniture by way of kicking and tossing it across the room. Her bed was shoved against her dresser, the couches barely held up by the wall. Her spare desk was upside down and resting on the stairs and almost all of her chairs had ended up in the bathroom. He wasn't sure how she had managed that, but he wasn't about to ask. The warning he had gotten was that Shepard had found a safe corner and was quiet. It wasn't the anger he was worried about, but the silence that followed. He knew her well enough to know that this was the calm before the storm.

"Shepard…" He looked around and sighed, wishing he was better at this. "Galaxy, come on. It's Ashley; you know she opens her mouth before she thinks."

She buried her head into her arms. "I wish you could have told her what they were doing."

Jeff blinked. He hadn't even thought about it. Cerberus had told him that if he wanted to fly he had to keep quiet about the Lazarus Project. What could he have told her if he had been allowed to? Cerberus had scarred Shepard for life, taken the lives of hundreds of people. Who would believe they'd fight to give life to their friend?

No, he couldn't tell Ashley that Shepard was alive, and was being asked to save their asses once again. Who would believe him? But now that he remembers, it made him feel sick.

"I'm sorry…" He turned and looked around the room again. They couldn't just leave it like this. "At least she's alive."

Galaxy look up when he barely touched the couch and let it fall back to the floor. "I missed her… I miss everybody so much." Tears started to make her eyes glassy again, but she rubbed them with the back of her hand. "We should go see Liara."

He sat down on the couch and held out his hand to her. "You know all you have to do is ask…"

Without hesitation, Shepard stood and sat beside him on the couch, but quickly swung around to rest her legs over his. She laid her head against his chest and hugged him tightly around the neck. Joker forgot how to breathe for a moment, smelling only her freshly washed hair and feeling only her pajama'd body on his. She never failed to surprise him and always managed to slip past his defenses.

When she didn't move away form him he forced himself to exhale and awkwardly wrap and arm round her shoulder. It became surprisingly easy to relax against the couch as the minutes past and before long he had propped his feet on the coffee table and wrapped his other arm around her legs.

The sound of her soft, even breaths made him feel tired. He had barely slept since her death, and even now, he still woke up calling her name.

She had missed him. If he had been the one to push her away instead of Ashley, would she have acted the same?

A hand grazed his arm before wrapping around his stomach. "Don't leave…" She whispered.

As they drifted off to sleep, he heard himself mutter back. "Never…"


	13. Joker's Daughter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little wishful thinking, but hey, it was a prompt.

**Prompt: Joker's daughter**  
“Daddy?”

Sky peered into her parent’s bedroom to find her father sprawled out under the sheets, his hand reaching out to a datapad on the floor. He had fallen asleep reading the new book her mother and Aunt Liara had written.

One of the few things without pictures he actually read.

With a sigh, her small feet padded over to where he lay and snatched up the pad. She tucked it under her arm and kissed her father on his head.

“It’s eleven hundred hours, daddy, aren’t you forgetting something?”

The man grunted and she proceeded to prod him with her bare foot.

“Come on! You said you’d teach me how to drive a shuttle when mom’s off working!” She pouted for good measure. Her father could never resist the pout.

He grunted again, but this time turned to look at her. “You’ve got the memory of an asari, munchkin.”

She stuck her tongue out at him. “You promised.”

With another grunt, he rolled over and grabbed his hat off the bed post. Sky hopped around happily at the sight of it. It was a good sign.

“Alright, alright, I promised – but ten year olds can’t get licenses, okay?”

“I know, but you said I better learn now just in case!”

Her father smiled wide, sitting up. “Last time I checked, we Munroes don’t drive in our pajamas.”

She yelped and hurried back to her room to change.


	14. Rootbeer

**Prompt: Rootbeer**  
It was late when Zaeed came into the galley to find Shepard sipping on a bottle of what smelled like rootbeer and reading something on her datapad. He couldn’t be more puzzled.

“What the hell are you drinking, Shepard?”

Startled, Galaxy looked up from her book and rootbeer dribbled from her mouth. “What? Um.” She wiped her chin and flushed red. “It’s rootbeer. Gardner brought it in from our last colony pick up. Why?”

He eyed her again. “Are you twelve?”

“What am I suppose to drink?” She took another sip just to watch him look disgusted.

“A beer maybe?” Zaeed took it upon himself to grab two from the fridge and open one for her. “Here, drink that, it’s one of my own.”

Galaxy took the offered bottle and sniffed it. “Ugh… smells… just like the pub brewed stuff on Mindoir.”

Zaeed looked satisfied. Usually when things related to her homeworld, she took to it. “Good, drink it.”

“Good? No. That stuff tasted like warm piss and hops…” She sighed and took a quick gulp of the brown liquid.

Before he sat down himself, she was out of her chair and under the faucet as she gagged into the sink.

“Oh you big baby.”


	15. I Made My Choice

**Prompt: I Made My Choice**  
A bowl of ramen and a mug of tea suddenly appeared beside Jeff’s head as he came to at the small shop he had stumbled to after the awards banquet. He looked up to find the waif of a barkeep smile and nod towards something behind him. Despite his better judgement, he turned to find a familiar face breaking through his drunk haze.

“Commander… Galaxy.” He tried not to look her over, her toned curves looking amazing in an asari made dress.

“I didn’t think anyone could be more nervous than I was tonight.” Her smile made her glow in the red lamplight. He had to turn away or he really would be staring.

“No, it was just… I hate crowds.” He half-lied. All those people, Alliance and Political sorts of all types - they still looked at him differently than they had before Shepard’s death. Because of him, a great woman had been lost for a blink in time – and then here she was, another scar across her heart – and he had caused it.

If he hadn’t been so stubborn… Ashley’s voice still echoed in his head, like the sounds of the Normandy and his friends dying.

And yet, Shepard’s silence was the worse. Like the void of space.

Another bowl of ramen was set down in front of the seat beside him and he saw his Commander slide onto the bar stool. With trained ease, she started in on her ramen, periodically glancing at him, as if judging the right time to speak.

She always knew when anyone needed to hear her voice.

How did anyone not follow her to hell and back?

“How’d you find me?” He grunted, slurping the broth from the bowl as he started to wake up.

She smirked. “I hacked your omni – you really need a better password.”

He choked on the broth, laughing as his tux was splashed. “I’ll work on that.”

“Jeff.” Galaxy stirred the soup with her chopsticks.

“Mmm?” He continued to slurp, earning a few smiles from the barkeep and the cook lounging in the back of the Ramen-ya.

The stirring stopped and the silence returned to her face in a way that made him ill. “Why’d you leave when Garrus and I danced?”

He sat up and picked up his fork, stabbing at the noodles. He didn’t want to admit anything – not to himself, not to her – but there it was, all out in the open like a gun shot. It seemed to have gotten worse after she had gotten spaced – after he had gotten her spaced…

“I know I told you I don’t dance…”

Her hand slid over his and his brain shut down, the alcohol muddling his ability to be suave or uncaring.

“Jeff, I made my choice a long time ago… I promised myself I’d only ever love the person who can save me from myself…” She squeezed his fingers and looked into her soup. “I’d of been dead years ago, if it hadn’t been for you.”

“Likewise.” He muttered, the blur lifting just a little…


	16. Forgiveness

**Prompt: Forgiveness**  
“I never blamed you, Jeff, so stop looking at me like that…”

“What?”

“I know that look.” She eyed him. “Guilt. I’ve seen it on many soldiers’ faces. Countless people look at me, telling me they're sorry they couldn’t get there in time - for Akuze… for Mindoir. Men and women who wished they had been there to save me from the scars. The ones that never leave.”

“But that’s just it…”

“No… it’s not. Death has always been my scar, Jeff. Always. It splits me right down the middle, filled in with… space. My whole life is piled up with the bodies of those I’ve lost… I couldn’t bare to add you to that. Not just so you could… clutch onto…a corpse. Not when she was already here…” She patted the place above her heart. “With the dead. I can’t let you get swept up in my scar… I’ve got enough guilt living in there already.”

“You sound like you’re blaming yourself…”

“Maybe I am… maybe I’m cursed? All I know is… I know Death’s face when I see it – and that look fills up the black behind his eyes.”


	17. Cow Tipping

**Prompt: Cow Tipping**  
Shepard groaned as she and Jack sat on the fence outside of her Mindoir farmhouse. It was late, so much so, most of the colony was asleep – and yet they were wide awake. She wondered what Jeff would think if he knew that Jack was actually tickled by her stories of farm life. She could see a whistlful, jealous look in the girl’s eyes and Galaxy felt a little guilty about sharing. If anything, they bonded over the heavy loss of their lives and promised each other to take back that life in their own way.

It was Jack though that couldn’t let go that Galaxy had ever been a little mischievous as a kid. A story about some of the older, Earthborn boys teaching the other kids about cow tipping made her friend cackle, scaring the space-cows.

“Do it.” Jack’s grin could have ripped open her face. “You gotta do it.”

“No, it’s mean and I’m not thirteen anymore.” Shepard chuckled, despite Jack’s prodding.

“Ah come on, do it for me! Think of all the colony things I’ve missed!” A thin fist hit her arm. “Stop being a pussy and push that cow like the colony hick you are!”

Galaxy gave an exasperating moan as she jumped off the fence and rushed the cow. Her mantra of inner apologies to the creature came to an abrupt stop as the one she ran toward stopped grazing, took a look at her in a stern, motherly way, and moved just as she jumped towards it.

Shepard yelped, rolling over the cow’s back and landing hard on the ground where she made a mess of her clothes. Several patties covered her in green, grassy excrement and she groaned wordlessly.

Jack almost fell off the fence in amusement. “Oh shit! That was fucking great! You can tackle a Krogan, but not cow?!”

With a quick hand, Galaxy scooped off a handful of patty into her hand from her clothes and ran towards the fence. “Keep laughing, I’ve got a great shot!”

“SHIT!” Jack, still laughing herself sick, rolled backwards off the fence and landed on her feet, rushing for the house.


End file.
